Publication select ▼EASTPOINTE — The Eastpointe City Council has voted to hire a firm to begin conducting a search for its new city manager.
The idea to hire a firm to perform the search was originally agreed upon by the City Council at its April 15 meeting. The council put out a request for proposals, or RFP, for city manager search services. The RFP returned 13 proposals.
At its June 17 meeting, the City Council decided to schedule a special meeting, which was held June 24, to help narrow down the number of candidates based on criteria that the council created.
The goal of the special meeting was to identify the top four proposals.
At the meeting — which lasted only about 10 minutes — interim City Manager Elke Doom broke down the 13 proposals based on fee structures, where they were located and which ones had successful placements in Michigan.
Doom said that while all the companies that submitted proposals were good companies, she liked that some of them had more experience working in Michigan.
“I think that’s important, especially if you’re coming from a different state and don’t know how the state laws are or how things operate,” she said.
The sentiment was echoed by Council members Rob Baker, Margaret Podsiadlik and Cardi DeMonaco Jr.
“I was kind of looking at location, like Michigan location, as probably being helpful and then just trying to look at who offered what for the cost,” Baker said.
In the end, each council member, along with Mayor Michael Klinefelt, had rated Vettraino Consulting LLC, based in Rochester, as having the best proposal. At the council’s July 1 meeting, City Council voted 4-0 to award Vettraino with the contract to conduct the search. DeMonaco Jr. was absent from the meeting.
According to the agenda item, hiring Vettraino will cost the city $15,000. Vettraino’s proposal states that it is ready to begin the recruitment process immediately, with a proposed timeline of 12 weeks to hire.
In addition to hiring a firm, City Council also approved a charter amendment on May 6, 2025, that will change the required experience that candidates for the position must have.
Before the amendment, the charter stated that the city manager was required to have at least one year of experience as a manager or assistant city manager. The change requires that a city manager must have two years of experience in municipal management.
